Essar Ports back in black in Q4 at Rs 92 cr

The company said that its revenues jumped by 31%, to Rs 390 cr and pure earnings went up by 24%

Essar Ports has recorded a consolidated net profit of Rs 92.1 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013 as against a net loss of Rs 61.5 crore in the same quarter previous year.

The company said that its revenues jumped by 31%, to Rs 389.9 crore and pure earnings went up by 24%. The sharp rise in the profit as compared to revenues and EBITDA has been because the company suffered an exceptional item of an interest liability of over Rs 100 crore in the fourth quarter of FY12, Rajiv Agarwal, managing director, Essar Ports said.

Talking about the ports sector, Agarwal said that the iron ore shipments in the year crashed but the rise in coal imports covered up for the loss of cargo. Iron ore exports from India remained marginal,a t 18 million tonne in FY12, because of the Supreme Court’s mining ban. No iron ore exports are expected from India in the current fiscal as well.

Various companies of the Essar Group like Essar Steel and Essar Oil continue to be the anchor clients of Essar Ports. In the year-ended March 31, 2013, the company handled only 2% third-party cargo. Agarwal said that by 2015-16, the company expects 25% of its cargo handled to be third-party.

The company has a total debt of Rs 5,737 crore on its books and has spent Rs 7,500 crore in its expansions. By 2015-16, Essar Ports is expected to raise its cargo-handling capacity to 158 million tonne from the current 104 million tonne. The company will be spending Rs 2,000 crore more for this.

Agarwal said that this year the company will take up the expansion at its flagship Hazira port by another 1,100 metres. The procedure to take various approvals for this expansions are in the works.